Stepping Up
by SageK
Summary: The first football playoff game in WMHS history falls on the same day as Sectionals. Finn ditches New Directions for the game and leaves Rachel without a duet partner. Puck takes it upon himself to fill Finn's shoes.


"He did it again."

Kurt's despondent statement pretty much summed up the thoughts of every boy and girl standing in the parking lot of McKinley High School, watching the bus carrying the football team head off towards a playoff game in Dolton, several hours away. The Glee club was waiting for their own bus to arrive and take them to the Sectionals competition, something they had been excited for, but were now disheartened.

Initially, when it had been discovered that the first playoff game in WMHS history was taking place on the same day as Sectionals, there had been panic, as three of the boys on the football team were also in Glee club. The boys had been torn, but eventually assured their fellow glee clubbers that they could simply miss some of the pre-game stuff and hustle to the game after the club performed. After all, Sectionals were being held less than an hour from Dolton.

All had been well the night before…which was why everyone was so surprised to see Finn Hudson looking out at them from a window of the Football team's bus as it pulled away.

Shaking themselves out of their stupors, they glanced around, looking to Rachel, shocked and betrayed with tears in her eye, to Puck and Mike, clearly pissed off. "Coach called us all last night," Mike said, hand in hand with Tina. "Said if we weren't on the bus we were off the team. We had to choose." Everyone was cast adrift, their confidence shaken as, once again, Finn chose his status and popularity over them.

Really, they shouldn't have been all that surprised.

"We don't have enough members to qualify," Artie murmured bleakly. "We'll have to tell Mr. Shue we have to forfeit."

"Like hell." Puck snapped from where he had been glaring at the retreating bus, whipping around to meet the still morose gazes of everyone else. "Okay. We can do this. Anyone know someone we can coerce into being our 12th for a day."

They all knew they could probably terrify Jacob Ben Israel into doing it (at the moment, he was crouching in the bushes watching Rachel), but that was really a last resort. His creepy stalking had stepped up in intensity recently and no one wanted to encourage him.

"My sister!" Sam, the newest member of the club exclaimed, pulling out his cell phone and rapidly texting. "Ivy's a freshman."

"Can she sing?" Mercedes asked, then shrugged, "Never mind, we just need a body…tell her to bring a skirt and…gimme the phone."

Sam surrendered his phone to Mercedes to allow her to talk his sister through a passable costume for the routine. It was far easier than trying to be the go between.

Behind them, Brittany said, "Uh, Guys, think Rachel's broken."

Indeed Rachel had been far too quiet for far too long. It just wasn't like her. She was still standing there, hands clasped in front of her, staring off into the distance, the bus long gone from sight. Her lips were moving soundlessly and she was shaking her head from side to side in mute denial.

Raising a hand, Santana gave Rachel a slight shake, but to no effect. "Huh," the cheerleader said. "Britt's right."

"This is crazy," Quinn said. "Without Finn, no male lead and if she's not…whatever she normally is then we can't do this."

"Uh uh, no," Puck shook his head. "Mike and I chose this over football - Again - and we aren't going down without a fight."

Everyone but Rachel turned to look at him as Puck planted himself in front of Rachel and grasped both her upper arms. "Rachel," he said sternly, then, seeing that didn't have the wanted effect, he tried again, using a softer tone. "Rachel, you probably know a whole bunch of clichés about the show having to go on, but I don't. so all I'm going to say is, snap out of it! Are you going to let anyone get in the way of your dreams? You going to let Finn keep you off the stage?"

At least some of what he said seemed to penetrate the haze, and Rachel blinked at him and managed to say, "No…but, Finn's part…it's…."

"I got it," he assured her. "We'll be fine."

Rachel's hands flew up and gripped Puck's shirt in her deceptively strong little fists. "We'll need to go over choreography and who's going to be out 12th? Oh my god, Noah, we have so much to do!"

If every one in the club hadn't had the past year to get used to Rachel's crazy mood swings then this sudden burst of action after her little time out might have seemed odd. But to them it was actually kind of comforting.

Sometimes, Puck missed the days when he didn't have to think about shit like other peoples feelings.

When Mr. Shue and Ms. Pillsbury arrived ten minutes later, they were going over some of the choreography with Sam's sister and adjusting for her taking Puck's spot while he shifted up to Finn's position. To everyone's relief, Ivy was able to pick up the general idea of the routine and Santana and Mike promised to go over it on the bus again.

Rachel was back to her self, barking orders and maniacal encouragements, but she took a moment to inform Mr. Shue of Finn's decision. From the language she used, Puck was pretty sure Finn was not going to like what this particular betrayal of Rachel was going to earn him.

Unlike last years Sectionals, there was no foul play with their song choices and, when New Directions took the stage, Rachel and Santana killed their rendition of Out Tonight, Puck nailed his part in the lead duet of the Elephant Love Medley and the group number Bounce was full of energy and had the audience bouncing in their seats and cheering.

Everyone had been pretty shocked at how well Puck's voice blended with Rachel's and it had been pleasant for her to dance with someone who moved with some grace.

When they took first, Puck thought Rachel was going to strangle him as she hugged him with more of that weird strength, literally hanging off of him as they all hopped around in excitement. Yeah, he hopped. He actually kind of enjoyed the fact that he could be a big old dork around these people and they wouldn't mock him for it, even if he berated himself for the occasional slip up of his façade.

But, dude, they just won the Sectionals two years in a row. Kick ass.

This year they were going to take Regionals.

And fuck, he was more excited about that than he been after having a good football season.

Looking down at Rachel, who was still thrilled by their win and not thinking about the giant loser who'd broken her heart into little pieces, Puck knew he'd made the right choice and wondered how pissed Rachel would be if he kicked Finn's ass.


End file.
